Driving on Rainy Nights

One time, while driving along Quezon Avenue at night eons back when I just got my license and was driving my dad's crappy car, the rain blocked out all of my vision literally. Thanks to the defective wipers of that box-type Lancer SL, I almost had brake to a standstill and manually over-ride the wiper mechanism. Fortunately Leo was with me then and he had to "contact" the wipers to make them function. There was no airconditioning as well so all the windows fogged up and we had to wipe it off every five minutes of so just to see a couple of meters ahead.

Those were the days when I was stupid and reckless. The first instinct was to always floor the accelerator and drive with just one hand. (This was not steering-assisted, mind you) Each and every chance I got resulted in a race on EDSA with some random vehicle and the screams of passengers always made me feel so macho.

A totally different story from today when I know that I am probably the slowest driver among everyone else. I wouldn't take the risk of driving in the rain with a busted tail light nor speed on a slightly wet piece of asphalt. This has caused some amount of ridicule from my friends and a lot of wasted time on the road. And to think that I still get into accidents despite this defensive-minded approach.

Of course, the accidents are a result of the law of averages, number of hours or kilometers on the road as opposed to number of incidences occurring. But I can't imagine how stupid a driver I was back then. I had what is probably the oldest and least performing car but I always wanted to be ahead of everybody else.

This is what I see in other drivers who always seem to get one up over everybody else. With classic "taxi-driver maneuvering" and bolts of speed for even the shortest of distances. And not all of them are hormone-rich teenagers, too. But myself, too scared to challenge even a friggin' Picanto for a line. Maybe I'm just too cautious, mature, dimwitted or relaxed.

Whatever the case, in a few minutes I'll be driving in the rain again. And maybe I'll once again reminisce about those good old days when I was stupid, reckless and accelerator happy yet always cheated death.